Knife Sharpening as a Business?

[AmericanStand]

Knife Sharpening as a Business?

Has anyone here tried it? Do you have any advice to offer?

[Rustaholic]

Originally Posted by AmericanStand

Knife Sharpening as a Business?

Has anyone here tried it? Do you have any advice to offer?

It would just be a little side business unless you had the tooling to open a full scale sharpening business.
I have all of the tooling but there is such a great business in town it wouldn't be worth setting up a business.
In the spring I will be opening a small engine repair shop here and I as a side will offer drill bit, knife and scissor sharpening besides the mower blades of course.

[Ozarks Tom]

Funny you should mention it. I thought about doing that as a little side deal just to stay busy. I seems to me it would require making deals with small hardware & feed stores to set up in their parking lots for a %, and being included in their flyers. I guess a person could find a vacant corner, pay rent to the owner, and set up a small trailer to do business from.

You can get a professional grade hone for around $450, and small travel trailer for about $1200, and miscellaneous expenses (signage, etc.) for another $250.

I've also seen knife sharpeners at gun shows and preparedness expos, but with their booth costs I'm not sure the profit would be there.

[Ramblin Wreck]

One of the local saw shops has a guy come in to sharpen chain saw chains (and I think mower blades too). The shop repairs and sells the new stuff, but they leave all the sharpening to him, which he does on a schedule, just not every day.

[1shotwade]

A few years back I was doing a sawing job for a guy. At lunch we were eating/talking. He told me his father had retired a year earlier. When he did he wanted something to do just to take up time so he bought a saw sharpener.He only wanted to work a couple hours a day and only a couple days a week.Within one year he had so much business he was doing 10 hours a day 6 days a week.I do believe this man was honest so I guess the point is,at least it could be lucrative.

Wade

[Snowfan]

All I know is that I've got several knife sharpening systems and I still suck at sharpening. I don't mean I'm not very good, I mean I suck. If you do go for it, best of luck to you.

[rkintn]

After reading this, I did a quick google search into systems. Seems like it might be pretty doable, and not very expensive to get started. I'd ask around and make sure no one else is doing it already. I'd be interested to hear what you end up doing and how it's going

[charged]

Before getting into it, think about it, how many people have said to you, "boy I sure do wish I knew where to get my knives sharpened." In today's throw away society with cheap Chinese carp, people just throw away dull knives and buy new ones.

[Eco-]

Every time I visit our local farmers markets there is a bunch of activity around the knife sharpening vendors. $15 to sharpen a machete (both vendors charge the same) seems like a far rate to make some $$$. The farmers markets charge very little for booth rental unlike local homeshows that get about $1000 a day (Boston/Providence market). Those fancy cookware places in the malls charge an arm and a leg to sharpen good kitchen knifes.


My 2 cents, know your trade before you let someone had you $600 in good kitchen knifes that you could screw up. Good luck

[Callieslamb]

I'd have my things sharpened by someone if I knew where to go. Even sewing scissors you have to bring in, they take them and have them sharpened and then you go pick them up. Sometimes, it can take a week or more. Unless it cost the price of the scissors, I'd love to have someone do them.

[Rustaholic]

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

I'd have my things sharpened by someone if I knew where to go. Even sewing scissors you have to bring in, they take them and have them sharpened and then you go pick them up. Sometimes, it can take a week or more. Unless it cost the price of the scissors, I'd love to have someone do them.

Too bad you are way down there in SW Michigan not up here next to Traverse City. I have a very expensive Wolf Scissor sharpener and I would do them for three to five bucks. Light thin ones and heavy good ones need different prices because the wheels on this machine are expensive. You will not ever have them sharper though.
I was used to using one where I was working so I took all of ours in there to sharpen them too. Then I found one on eBay where the seller was calling it a grinder and I bought mine very cheap. The one at work had a VCR tape that shows how to use it so I brought it home and put it on a DVD and made one for me too. Mine was less than $20 including shipping. Check out what they go for on eBay. Mine even came with an extra set of special wheels for doing the expensive barber sheers.

[Woodpecker]

I love getting things sharpened. It reminds me of the sharing trucks that used to come around. Once in a blue moon I'll see a truck and when I do I bring everything I have out to be sharpened. My hardware store has a guy they send stuff out too so I usually do that.

[PNWest]

I have to be very frugal with my pennies, and I would suggest you have your prices posted. I can and do sharpen my own knives, but it's the cleaver, rose pruners, tree loppers, hand sickle, sewing scissors etc. that I would like to have sharpened.

I realize I am different, but I REFRAIN from doing business with shops that do not have posted prices. I do not want to waste your time, nor my own by having to back away from a transaction when I find the price is more than I can allot to a sharpening that day.

I might be the only person in the world to feel this way, but I have been burned by services that cost more than the original item.

My point of view comes from being a careful consumer, and if I feel your prices are reasonable, I will do business with you.

Good luck on your new adventure.

[Rustaholic]

Originally Posted by PNWest

I have to be very frugal with my pennies, and I would suggest you have your prices posted. I can and do sharpen my own knives, but it's the cleaver, rose pruners, tree loppers, hand sickle, sewing scissors etc. that I would like to have sharpened.

I realize I am different, but I REFRAIN from doing business with shops that do not have posted prices. I do not want to waste your time, nor my own by having to back away from a transaction when I find the price is more than I can allot to a sharpening that day.

I might be the only person in the world to feel this way, but I have been burned by services that cost more than the original item.

My point of view comes from being a careful consumer, and if I feel your prices are reasonable, I will do business with you.

Good luck on your new adventure.

I completely agree.
Six or seven years ago I took one of my old time grind stones to our local engine show. The kind you hang a can of water over it with a hole in it to drip water on the stone then sit on the seat and use the pedals to make the wheel turn. I had a lot of my old hand tools there and a sign leaning against the front of it made from thin plywood that had old time prices on it ranging from three cents to a quarter. Single bit axe $0.15 Double bit axe $0.25 and so on down to butcher knife $0.03. Only one person had picked up an old grass sickle in the flee market and I put a nice sharp edge on it for a nickle just like it said on my price list board. A froe was $0.20 and an adze was $0.15. I would have to go out to my engine shed to find the other prices.

The people did like seeing me there sharpening up all of my old stuff with the grind stone. I heard so many stories about what their dads and grand parents sharpened with theirs.

I know my 90 year old mother says they never had one on the farm she grew up on but up the hill was her mother's parents and the kids would take tools up there to get them sharpened up.

[FarmboyBill]

We had a grindstone when I was a kid, and I had one up till last year. Both was hand crank, and I by myself couldn't do any good with it both cranking and holding the tool to be sharpened. The one we had at home, the center was pretty near knocked out, and the outside wasn't circular. I remember dad holding the ax while I cranked the wheel.

[karenp]

I would also suggest being able to sharpen chains for chainsaws.

[COWS]

Re Sharpening chain saws: I use a Dremel type tool and a chain saw type stone. It works fast and does a good job, with a little practice. With each sharpenng i hit the drag teeth a little bit, works good so far.

I can sharpen a chain with a chainsaw file also. The trick is to take the chain off the bar and clamp it in a vise so you can put some pressure to it. Put a flat file on top of the chain and look to see if there is a 1/32 gap between the flat file and the drag teeth. It's best to have the chain with the grooves in the top of the teeth to guide the proper angle. The rotary tool is much faster.

Hedge clippers and loppers can be sharpened by clamping them in a vise, making careful note of the sharpening angle, and working on them with a flat file.

Sharpening tools for profit is a different matter. I see some guys set up at flea markets and they seem to have plenty of business.

COWS

[HermitJohn]

Originally Posted by charged

In today's throw away society with cheap Chinese carp, people just throw away dull knives and buy new ones.

There is some truth in this. However, most knives dont come properly sharpened from the factory. To sell them at low price point, they cant pay some guy to time necessary to properly hand sharpen them. Buying a new cheap knife means at most you might get couple weeks use of it while its sharp. If you dont know how to resharpen a knife yourself, you are just going to get screwed over and over again buying more and more knives.

As to cheap Chinese carp.... actually one of best deals out there on kitchen knives are the Chinese "forged" kitchen knives. I put forged in quotes cause they are actually welded together, not a one piece forged knife. But for all intents and purposes unless you get a poorly welded one that comes apart on you, you will never know the difference. Sold under every brand imaginable but probably all come from same Chinese factory (or factories). Anyway they all come poorly sharpened whether you pay $10 or $80. But once edge is properly reshaped and honed, they hold edge very well. Past six months I have been using one I bought used for pennies, sharpened it properly and havent needed to touch it up yet.

[HermitJohn]

Originally Posted by FarmboyBill

We had a grindstone when I was a kid, and I had one up till last year. Both was hand crank, and I by myself couldn't do any good with it both cranking and holding the tool to be sharpened. The one we had at home, the center was pretty near knocked out, and the outside wasn't circular. I remember dad holding the ax while I cranked the wheel.

Those were the economy grindstones and far as I ever knew, did require two people. But usually always a spare kid around back in the day to turn the thing.

Most farms had one of the more serious treadle type with a seat and you had the water drip can at the top.

Sad thing was lot of grindstones were converted to electric for some unknown reason, and this was done on cheap so no thought of excess speed. Thus grindstone turned far too fast and very easy to burn metal.

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Another opportunity would be fabric stores. My favorite one has a vendor come twice a year to pick up sewing scissors for sharpening.